Why is my power out right now?

First: is it just you?

Check your breaker panel for a tripped main, and look at your neighbors' homes. If they have power and you don't, the problem may be your service line or panel — report it to your utility either way. If the block is dark, it's an outage: type your address into our tracker to see how many customers are affected around you and the current restoration outlook.

The usual causes

Weather dominates: wind and falling trees, ice accumulation on lines, lightning, and heat that overloads equipment. Equipment failure (transformers, underground cable) happens without any storm. Animals — mostly squirrels — cause thousands of outages a year by bridging equipment. Vehicle crashes into poles take out circuits locally. And some outages are planned maintenance your utility scheduled (these usually carry an announced window).

Rolling blackouts are different

During extreme grid stress (heat waves, deep freezes), operators may rotate short, deliberate outages to protect the grid. These are shorter but can recur. Our tracker flags likely rotation patterns when we detect areas cycling on and off.

When to call 911

A downed power line is a 911 call — treat every line as live, stay far away (at least 35 feet), and never touch anything or anyone in contact with it, per Red Cross guidance. Report outages themselves to your utility (its number is on your bill and on your area's page here).

How restoration actually proceeds

Utilities restore in a deliberate order — see our guide to how power restoration works — which is why two streets can come back hours apart.